Ham (Whole)

April 15, 2008 /

Ham is the cured meat from the hind leg of a hog. When buying a whole ham, you’ll find bone-in and boneless ham, as well as dry-cured, wet-cured, and fresh.

Bone-In: Bone-in hams look great and offer a bonus: a hambone that can add great flavor to soups and stews after the ham is gone. Cooked bone-in ham is available precut or uncut. Precut ham is often available “spiral cut,” meaning that it has been sliced with a special cutter that works around the bone and left in its original shape. For good instructions on how to slice an uncut, bone-in ham, visit recipetips.com.

Boneless: Here, the ham has had the bones removed and is molded and shaped a bit before it’s packaged. It’s much easier to slice, but doesn’t always deliver the same flavor that bone-in ham does.

Whole Ham is cured in one of two ways (or both):

Dry-cured: Ham coated with salt and hung to dry and age has been dry-cured. This is an ancient method, and the same one used to create European hams, like Italian prosciutto and Serrano ham from Spain, as well as country-style hams from the South. If you prefer ham that’s less salty, a good option is to soak the ham in water for at least four hours to remove some of the salt before cooking and serving. The color can range from pink to deep brown.

Wet-cured: Most mass-produced hams you’ll find at the supermarket have been wet-cured, usually by injection with a salty brine. This is also called “city ham.” The color can be bright or dull pink, depending on the cure.

Once the ham is cured, it is sometimes also smoked. Most commercially produced smoked ham is smoked quickly at high temperatures to kill bacteria. Some smaller producers still cold-smoke; that is, they smoke their ham long and slow without raising the temperature high enough to cook it. This kind of ham includes country hams like Smithfield ham from Virginia, as well as Westphalian from Germany.

Both dry- and wet-cured hams are safe to eat cold. If reheating, cook the ham to an internal temperature of 140°F.

Whole ham is also available fresh. Fresh ham is also (and more correctly) known as pork leg. Fresh ham has been neither cured nor smoked (so it’s not a true ham), and needs thorough cooking to an internal temperature of 160°F. The color is similar to other uncooked pork cuts.

To see the five southern hams we love, check out our taste test: American Ham.